MARION - A 66-year-old man drowned early Sunday afternoon off Converse Point apparently after falling overboard while making an adjustment to a bumper on his powerboat.

Marion Police did not identify the man pending notification of kin, but they did describe the circumstances of the search and rescue effort. Marion Police Officer Karen Ballinger, the police department’s public information officer, said the Marion Harbormaster’s office received a marine distress call about 1 p.m. Sunday, June 29, for a person in the water with no life preserver off Converse Point. The Marion Harbormaster, as well as Marion Police and Marion Fire, responded to the area. Marine units of the Buzzards Bay Task Force, harbormasters from Mattapoisett, Wareham, and Bourne, as well as the New Bedford Fire Department and the Coast Guard joined in the search and rescue effort. State police detectives, and Massachusetts Environmental Police also responded, she said.

The boater who made the distress call, and the boat were located not long after the emergency call was received. When first responders arrived on scene they were met by a woman, later identified as the deceased man’s wife, who told authorities she and her husband left out of Onset, and that her husband was attempting to fix a bumper on their powerboat and lost his balance when a wave hit the boat, throwing him into the water. He was not wearing a life preserver, police said.

Police noted that seas were choppy at about 4 feet, with winds at 15 mph out of the southwest at the time of the incident.

A member of the town harbormaster’s unit brought the woman and the boat back to Island Wharf in Sippican Harbor in Marion, Ballinger said. The woman was evaluated on scene and transported to the Marion Police Department. A passing boater recovered an unresponsive man from the water at approximately 4:30 p.m., Ballinger said. Coast Guard medical personnel attempted resuscitation on the 66-year-old white male. Marion Harbormaster personnel then transported the man into Converse Point. He was taken by Marion EMS to Tobey Hospital in Wareham, where he was pronounced dead.